http://www.livescience.com/56690-deadly-measles-complication-more-common.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fatal-measles-complication-killed-patients-years-later-n674706
Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) is always fatal.
Wow. Those are not good odds. I am amazed that I never heard of it before, since my generation had no measles vaccine.
Thankfully, I had the measles in, IIRC, 5th or 6th grade.
Yes, my sibs and I had measles as there was no vaccine back in the day. Scary that those who get measles are st incr asked risk of this additional condition!
I was 18 days old when I got it. Sounds like I am past the danger age, though.
am I safe? I am 65 and had measles at age 2. My mom said she was so afraid I was going to die, I was so sick.
From what I can see in the article, they haven’t seen it in anyone over around 35. But the sample is small… I suppose we could still get it. Seems like there isn’t much point in worrying about it now, though.
Yikes I had measles When I was five.
guys, relax.
read the article carefully.
the complications ALL involve measles cases that have been diagnosed SINCE 1988.
and I’m sorry, but 16 PEOPLE dying in Calif, which has a population of 30+ MILLION, is cause for alarm???
more people in Calif are killed EVERY DAY in traffic accidents, than have been killed IN TOTAL from this rare complication
" Cherry says the cases involve people infected with measles since a major outbreak in the U.S. that started in 1988. Between 1989 and 1991, 55,000 measles cases were reported and 123 children died. Since then rates have been just a fraction of that and measles was declared eliminated in the U.S.
Still, up to several hundred are reported every year when travelers bring measles back from other countries and occasionally spark small outbreaks.
The team started to look at possible SSPE cases after the German cases were reported. They found 16 people in California alone killed by SSPE - all diagnosed by autopsy after they died. A 17th case is in hospice care now, they told a meeting of infectious disease specialists in New Orleans. "
“16 PEOPLE dying in Calif, which has a population of 30+ MILLION, is cause for alarm???”
But the denominator is not 30+ million - it is the # of people who were NOT immune and got the disease, a much smaller # than the total population.
I had German measles but never measles.
I had measles when I was 1 year old. My Dad was deployed overseas (Air Force), and she had to deal with a toddler and with a very very sick child all by herself. She said I sobbed for literally 24 hours straight, and she thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown from it.